The Sissener Family

The Sissener family originates from Colonel Guilliame Sissener (1779-1846).Born in Brussels, he started his military career as a soldier in Napoleon Bonaparte's army in 1799. After being captured by the Russians, he escaped in 1807 and joined the the Royal Danish Lifeguard in Copenhagen. In January 1808, Sissener was promoted to Lieutenant with the 1st. National Infantry Regiment at Trondheim. This is when he took the name Wilhelm, the Norwegian equivalent of Guilliame.

In 1810, another soldier of Napoleon, Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte (1763-1844), was elected King of Sweden, and took the name Karl Johan. In 1814, France's ally Denmark was forced to give Norway up to Sweeden.

Guilliame benefitted from his common origin with the new King, and rose quickly in the military ranks. In 1814, he was promoted Captain and in 1818 Sissener was transferred to the 1st Akershus Brigade (Akershusiske infanteribrigade). He moved into the historic site of Brensmork in Eidsvoll with his wife Maren Hals, the daughter of a highly ranked soldier.

In April 1837, Wilhelm Sissener became Commandant of Kongsvinger Fortress, and two years later he was promoted to Colonel.

During his life at Brensmork, the Sissener family made close ties to the Wergeland family. The famous Norwegian poet Henrik Wergeland mentions several members of the Sissener family in his poems.

Sissener and King Karl Johan were good friends, and when the King visited Christiania (now Oslo), Sissener was always by his side.

All the above information from [http://www.sissener.no]

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The newer descendants of the Sissener family are known to be successfull businessmen, and for a long time they were among Norways richest and most influential families.

Einar A. Sissener founded A.L. Industrier, a pharmaceutical company in 1903. His son, Wilhelm Sissener, one of the first Norwegians to hold an equivalent of an MBA, cleaned up when the company went into financial crises in the 1930s. The most famous product at this time was Norgesplaster and commercialisation of Penicillin.

During the latter part of the 20th century, the company grew large and powerful. It went public on AMEX in 1984, and then later on the New York Stock Exchange in 1989. In 1994, they changed their name to Alpharma, inc. under the trading symbol ALO. In 2000, Ingrid Wiik took over Alpharma. Her terrible job caused the stock to drop from $66 to $5 only two years later when she was removed. [http://www.alpharma.com/media/flash/animo.swf]

Wilhelm Sissener had two sons, Einar and Jan, and a daughter, Ellen. When Wilhelm died in 1977, Einar bought out the rest of family at a price less than 10% of market value. He had long been working for the company and had key inside information. In 2003, The Norwegian Supreme Court found him guilty of luring his brother and late sister's children, and was forced to pay a compensation to them. However, the compensation only included what the difference in price was in 1977, and no consideration was given to interest, interests interest or the missing growth in the stock price. [http://www.domstol.no/DAtemplates/Article____9278.aspx?epslanguage=NO]

The Sissener family kept control of Alpharma until the family's holding company, A.L. Industrier, sold their shares in 2006. The sale came as a result after the Norwegian businessman Knut Holm changed sides in the family quarrel, and it was decided that the shareholders were to harvest their earnings.

Einar W. Sissener passed away on June 30th 2008. [http://www.dn.no/forsiden/naringsliv/article1437181.ece]

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Both Jan W. Sissener (Norwegian Consul of Switzerland) and Einar Sissener (ex-chairman of Alpharma) have received the Order of St. Olav, a highly respected rank given out by HM King Harald V of Norway. [http://www.saintolav.com/statutesoftheorder.html]

----Einar Sissener's son, Einar Andreas Sissener, is a successful real estate developer in Sandefjord, Norway.

----Jan Petter Wilhelm Courvoisier Sissener, the son of late Ellen Sissener, has become a guru in the Norwegian finance world. He has built several of Norway's leading stock brokerage firms. Among them Orkla Finans (later acquired by SEB),Carnegie's branch in Oslo, Alfred Berg (later acquired by ABN Amro). He recently resigned from his CEO position of Kaupthing Norway, after getting into an argument with the Board of Directors. Sissener wanted to share the profits with his employees, while the Board wanted to retain earnings. [http://avis.dn.no/artikler/avis/article7190.ece]

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Wilhelm C. Sissener, youngest of Jan W. Sisseners two sons, has reached a high position in the private banking industry in Switzerland. Elder son Pål F.W. Sissener is running a leading firm in Switzerland active in import of world-famous audio-visual products, among other items, norwegian Electrocompaniet [http://www.electrocompaniet.no]